Reference Projects

Problem

Machines on the factory floor are not able to directly communicate with the ERP system.

In-house ERP system only has a REST API for basic operations.

No commercially available solutions available for this specific ERP system and complex workflows needed for this client → “full code” approach needed.

Solution

Development of a bidirectional SW-bridge between the in-house ERP system and the data generated by MQTT messages from the factory floor using a unified namespace.

Microservices based “ERP2MQTT” bridge runs on top of Dapr which is an open-source framework to abstract away some of the implementation details regarding stateful application storage, PubSub messaging, etc.

Deployment and monitoring on Edge: On Docker for testing, on Kubernetes in production.

Customer Benefit

Full bidirectional and temporal decoupled messaging between the factory floor machines and the in-house ERP system, which also acts as MES (manufacturing execution system).

Currently implemented workflows such retrieval and display of manuals for the operator on a tablet (Single Point of Truth, no outdated printed manuals anymore), operator clocking and scrap reporting.

Deployment on Docker or Kubernetes makes this “ERP2MQTT” bridge highly customizable and scalable and can be combined with CI/CD pipelines for application updates in different environments (e.g., staging and prod).

By abstracting the lower-level implementation details we were able to fully concentrate on the higher, workflow-based logic of the application to maximize the ROI for our customer.

Problem

Customer had some basic knowledge about Azure IoT Architectures and best practices.

Infrastructure deployments had been done manually using “ClickOps” which is error prone and time consuming.

Solution

Development of an MS Azure IoT concept & IaC (Infrastructure-as-Code) templates for an Azure architecture used for time series analysis & calculation of several production KPIs.

Development of a blueprint for deploying a specific application stack on AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service).

Customer Benefit

Enabled our customer to automate, shift and scale their in-house application stack to MS Azure, therefore reducing operational costs and time to market while increasing scalability and security.

Problem

Inefficient intralogistics, “offline” Kanban board for ordering of replenishment materials in the production process.

Solution

Development, testing and deployment of an in-house LCIA Kanban system for replenishment materials on the factory floor.

Operator can order materials from a touch screen or scan a physical card using an RFID sensor.

The intralogistics team see the orders on their tablet in near real time, ordered by priority and optimal path.

Customer Benefit

Total hardware cost low using off-the-shelf microcontrollers and RFID sensors.

Intralogistics process times to bring and get materials have been reduced by more than 50%.

Problem

No off-the-shelf solutions for a retrofit to detect an operator working on a machine.

Constraint: Operator must use a LEGIC key which are in use already for building access management.

Solution

Development of a custom MS Azure IoT Edge module for an industrial grade minicomputer which uses an RFID reader compatible the with LEGIC keys in use.

Deployment of hard- & software to the entire machine park.

Messages are transmitted via MQTTS and logged in an MS Azure SQL DB.

The logged messages are then used in an ETL process to calculate one of several production KPIs.

Customer Benefit

Scalable and robust Edge application, platform is a basis for future Edge applications.

More transparency in the production and quality process by mapping product, operator and machine to each other.